Public school teacher Ambria Taylor is a Chicago Teachers Union member and Democratic Socialist running for 11th Ward alderman. Taylor has lived in Bridgeport since 2012, according to her campaign website. In the fall of 2022, Taylor organized a community bike ride to promote awareness about Chicago’s pedestrian and bike infrastructure and public transit

Helen West is a retired educator, cancer survivor, coronavirus survivor and former art gallery owner. West has served on the Board of Directors of Muntu Dance Company, Mid-South Planning and Development and the South Side Community Art Center. West and her boyfriend both got sick with COVID-19 in 2020; while her boyfriend died, West enrolled in a remdesivir trial — she credited the drug with contributing to her recovery from the disease.

Ebony Lucas is a real estate attorney who is making her third run for the aldermanic seat in the 4th Ward. Lucas unsuccessfully challenged Ald. Sophia King in 2017 and 2019. Lucas, who is the managing partner for a firm called The Property Law Group, told the Hyde Park Herald  in September that her campaign is focused on affordable housing and local commercial development.

Some of her past experience includes serving on the King College Prep Local School Council and serving as president of Mandrake Park Advisory Council, according to a biography on The Property Law Group’s website .

Lucas is currently the board secretary for the South Side Community Investor Association, and she attended University of Michigan Law School.

Tracey Bey is making her second run for 4th Ward alderman after challenging former Ald. Will Burns in 2015. This cycle, her nominating petitions are being challenged, putting her status on the ballot in jeopardy. 

Khari Humphries, senior director of youth policy in the Mayor’s Office of Education and Human Services, is aiming to leave the Lightfoot administration to lead the 4^th Ward as current Ald. Sophia King mounts a challenge against the sitting mayor.

Humphries was appointed to the youth policy post by the mayor in the spring of 2022, with the office recognizing his 25 years of community relations and nonprofit work on behalf of youth. Humphries earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from St. Xavier University and was a 2018 Fellow of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy’s Civic Leadership Academy, according to the Chicago Mayor’s Office.

His previous experience includes serving as director of the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago, serving as executive director of school age strategies for Thrive Chicago and serving as senior manager of community life for The Community Builders, Inc. in Bronzeville.

State Rep. Lamont Robinson Jr. (D-Chicago) has served two terms in the Illinois General Assembly and became the first openly LGBTQ African American elected to the state legislature in 2018. He was reelected to a third term in the House in 2022. Robinson has a degree in business marketing from Clark Atlanta University and an MBA from National Louis University.

The legislator has been an insurance agent and owns an Allstate insurance branch, worked as a business professor at Harold Washington College and worked as director of the Kappa Leadership Institute in Chicago. Robinson nabbed the endorsement of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who lives in the 4th Ward and who said “Lamont works hard and has the vision and experience to lead the Fourth Ward forward.”

As outgoing Ald. Sophia King’s chief of staff, Prentice Butler is pitching his experience working for an existing alderman as the main argument for why 4th Ward residents should choose him to succeed King. His website says  his work with King “has demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of city government, social media, and community engagement, which has expanded the outreach of the Alderman’s agenda and accomplishments.”

Butler attended the University of Chicago — where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science and later a master’s in public policy from the Harris School of Public Policy — and Loyola Chicago, where he earned a master’s in Urban Life Learning: Chicago Studies. Butler worked for the Law Office of Ernesto Borges, a bankruptcy firm, to provide financial consultations, including to low- and middle-income customers.

Jocelyn Hare is mounting another run for the 5th Ward aldermanic seat after coming in fourth out of six candidates in the 2015 municipal election. Hare is a senior assistant director of Harris Policy Labs at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, a role in which she researches and implements urban policies in different cities alongside students and clients. Hare is a a former board member of the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance and currently serves on the board of Chicago’s Pride Action Tank, according to a biographical page  on the UChicago site. According to the Chicago Reader , Hare was formerly a fellow in the office of Gary, Indiana Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson where she was a policy consultant.

Kris Levy is a South Shore wine and spirits distributor, according to a profile in  the Hyde Park Herald in which he also talked about economic development and increased funding for local schools as methods by which to improve public safety. Levy has an industrial engineering degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, according to the Herald.

Marlene Fisher has been a senior administrator at the University of Chicago since 2016, according to her LinkedIn page. Fisher has campaign pages and social media which are inactive, but according to Block Club Chicago  she ran a garden in Greater Grand Crossing.

Renita Ward is a practicing attorney who got her law degree from DePaul University. She was formerly a law clerk under Presiding Judge Leroy K. Martin, Jr. in the Criminal Division of the Cook County Circuit Court. Ward is also an associate minister at a local church and volunteers at Trinity United Church of Christ Legal Clinic.

Ward’s work in the community also includes serving on the Chicago Police Department’s CAPS Faith Based Subcommittee in District 2.

Joshua Gray managed the 2019 mayoral campaign of Amara Enyia and in August 2022 was found liable, along with Enyia and three others, for unpaid wages to two dozen campaign employees, according to the Hyde Park Herald. Gray is a political consultant who has previously worked as an aide for Ald. David Moore (17) and as an anti-violence community organizer for the Rev. Michael Pfleger, according to the Herald.

It’s not his first run for political office. In 2018 Gray ran for the Cook County Board of Commissioners in the Democratic Party primary in District 3 following the retirement of Comm. Jerry Butler and finished in fourth place out of seven candidates.

Robert Palmer is a high school teacher seeking the open aldermanic seat in the 5th Ward. Palmer ran in the June 2022 Democratic Party primary to succeed U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush in Illinois’ 1st Congressional District but finished 11th out of 17 candidates.

Wallace E. Goode, Jr. led the Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce for more than a decade, increasing its membership from 187 to 311 during his leadership, the Hyde Park Herald reported .

Goode has a bachelor's degree from Elmhurst University, a master's degree in education from the University of Vermont and served in the Peace Corps.

According to Goode’s campaign website, he was a special assistant to former Mayor Richard M. Daley, assistant commissioner for Workforce Development and executive director of Chicago’s Empowerment Zone.